The Winds of Change...

Well, the little chick-a-dees grew up so fast and a whole lot has happened!

Let's see, we had 6 cockerels and 3 pullets. Once we could, we gave 2 of the roosters to a friend of ours. One got eaten by a bobcat and the other is doing well over their backyard flock. We then had 4 roosters. Well, 5 if you count General Cotton. He finally had to be taken out after attacking me and dd several times. Once those chicks were born, he was fiercely protecting them. We respected that, but couldn't tolerate it. Poor guy. He really was a good rooster - to the hens anyway.

So, our other 4 roosters... let's see. There was that funny looking character, a salmon faverolle cockerel. Check him out. He went through a really awkward stage. Looked like he was wearing bloomers. Believe it or not, he eventually became a gorgeous rooster, but was at the bottom of the pecking order. He was always running scared and screeching this high pitched scream. We called him Screech. When they were all about 5 months old, we came out and found him dead one morning. We don't know why. This happens sometimes. Maybe the other chickens kept him from water and he dehydrated. The big roosters really picked on him. Poor guy.

This is our Ameraucana cockerel who loved to roost under mama chicken. He grew into the most beautiful rooster we have every laid eyes on. I don't think I ever got a decent picture of him, though. Once he got bigger and started getting his beautiful color, we started calling him Little Jerry Seinfeld.






Let me see what pics I can find of him. Well, here is a really crappy pic of him. He is still a juvenile rooster, here and not nearly as pretty as he eventually got, but you can see his pretty colors.










We had other pretty roosters, too. General Mustard was the biggest chick and also the biggest rooster. He was just huge!! There was another one of the same kind. We called him Optimus Roo. The two of them were really aggressive with the hens and with the other two roosters. We eventually decided to butcher General Mustard. He was just too aggressive and, well, they are a great table bird. Waste not.

Here is the big guy.


We decided to keep Optimus Roo and Little Jerry Seinfeld around until we could get some of the fertile eggs from their ladies. We planned to hatch some Ameraucanas and some more Marans and then get rid of Optimus and keep Little Jerry.

Then one night, the kids left the gate to the chicken yard open. The next morning, Optimus was gone. Only a bobcat could have been the culprit. A sly, quiet predator that takes only what he eats. One of the hens was gashed, but fine. I know he put up a fight and gave his life for his ladies as any good rooster will.

We had already had one possible bobcat attack. Our best layer, Speckles - the white hen, had wandered over next door and was eaten by something. We suspect a bob cat rather than the dog next door who would have taken it into their house to show it off.

Unfortunately, shortly after his untimely demise, the Marans hen stopped laying. This happens when they start to molt, or when the days become shorter than 14 hours. So, no fertile eggs, for shortly after she stopped laying, they all did.

Then, one cold, sad morning in January... I went out with my cup of coffee to discover feathers all over the yard. I looked over at the chicken yard. The gate was closed! What happened?? Upon investigation, I discovered that a pack of coyotes had come in the night and dug a hole under the chicken fence and had taken most of our flock. Our beautiful Little Jerry Seinfeld, our sweet Henrietta who laid the green eggs and loved to be held by dd (pictured), our funny, curious Cinnamon, our only little Marans pullet. They took 5 chickens. We had only 4 hens left.

2 of the hens we had left were the two we didn't even like. They were mother and daughter and they were just mean, unfriendly birds. So we have sold them. Now we are down to our sweet Penny, our Buff Orpington - who laid our first egg and a hatched all those babies, and Fiona, our funny Speckled Sussex. Now we are starting over...